In the production of materials, it is often necessary to adhere one piece of material to another. This is very often the case in the production of sheet-like materials, wherein laminating is used to improve the physical properties or appearance of the finished product. One problem that arises in such situations is that it is necessary to apply an adhesive to one or both surfaces, and yet adhesives, by their nature tend to be, or to become, sticky and viscous, thus eventually clogging the machinery used to apply such adhesives.
Although it is possible to remove and clean or replace the affected portions of the system, this entails labor and material costs, and also results in excessive downtime of the production line. While the present invention also may entail certain costs and may result in a small amount of downtime, it very often provides a significantly more economical solution than the state of the art.
When considering this background section, the disclosure and claims herein should not be limited by the deficiencies of the prior art. In other words, the solution of those deficiencies, while desirable, is not a critical limitation of any claim except where otherwise expressly noted in that claim. Moreover, while this background section is presented as a convenience to the reader who may not be of skill in this art, it will be appreciated that this section is too brief to attempt to accurately and completely survey the prior art. The preceding background description is thus a simplified and anecdotal narrative and is not intended to replace printed references in the art. To the extent an inconsistency or omission between the demonstrated state of the printed art and the foregoing narrative exists, the foregoing narrative is not intended to cure such inconsistency or omission. Rather, applicants would defer to the demonstrated state of the printed art.